Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Yosano Kaoru Tells A Joke

A drum roll please.

We have a nominee! In the category of the all-Japan, no wait, all-world, all-time "Article Title Demonstrating the Least Grasp of Historical Context and Irony" the nominee is...The Financial Times, for what seems to be a classic howler:

Kaoru Yosano, Japanese finance minister, on Tuesday highlighted growing desperation in the ruling Liberal Democratic party by claiming a looming landslide victory for the opposition Democratic party of Japan in Sunday's general election could lead to "one-party dictatorship".

Mr Yosano’s choice of words raised immediate eyebrows, given the DPJ’s impeccably democratic credentials and the fact that the LDP itself has ruled Japan for all but 11 months of the past 53 years, much of it in the absence of any credible opposition.

But the finance minister’s stark warning reflects increasingly frantic efforts by LDP heavyweights to rally the party’s campaign troops amid a steady release of opinion polls that suggest the DPJ could take as many as 300 seats in the Diet’s 480-seat lower house.

Yes, because we all remember Yosano's standing atop that tank, demanding the Koizumi Jun'ichirō negate the results of the 2005 House of Representatives election (that, among other things, gave Yosano Kaoru his seat back) giving the LDP and its coalition partner the New Kōmeitō not just control of both houses of the Diet but a two thirds supermajority in the House of Representatives, making it possible for the ruling coalition to pass any legislation it wanted to through the Article 59 override provision. Yes, I remember Yosano's demanding that Koizumi invalidate the election, or at least limit the number of seats held by the LDP, out of his fears of the possibility of an emerging dictatorship.